


Best Friends Forever

by sunset_oasis



Series: Innocent Before Yesterday [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, F/M, Jealousy, Love Triangle, M/M, Unrequited Love, i also implied flintwood though it wasn't explicitly mentioned, i know nobody probably cares but i felt like mentioning it lol, mutually oblivious theomione, onesided blaisemione, some fluff but more angst i'm afraid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 17:56:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10576485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunset_oasis/pseuds/sunset_oasis
Summary: She was always distrusting of the concept of love and romance. Luckily, they promised to be just friends. Platonic friends. Best friends forever. How long, exactly, was forever? Muggle AU.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
> Birthday gift for Colubrina and JasperandGemma <3

**Two and a Half Years Ago**

Hermione Granger always knew she was smart. And pretty. Well, not the classic, girl-next-door kind of pretty like Lavender Brown nor the sporty, energetic, and vibrant type like Ginny Weasley, but she was pretty, in her own cold and sharp and ice-queen-styled way.

Added that with her over an analytic mind, a razor-sharp tongue and a tendency to be too honest that didn’t suit the politics of middle school girls, it made the other girls wary of her. Not that she minded. If being herself could filter through a lot of unnecessary people in her life, then why not?

Once in a while some boy would come forward and confess their crush on her or something but she would turn them all down.  In truth, she thought of the idea romance bizarre and a bit scary even – to have another person in your life in a romantic way, the concept alone freaked her out a bit. Would she still be able to be herself? Wouldn’t she be … _constrained_ in any way?

Why was everyone so eager to fall in love at middle school, anyway?

But most importantly, if you got together with a somewhat friend of yours, how would everything still be the same after breaking up? And yes, she did believe that all romances eventually led to breakup someday. This was real life, not some fairy tale. She’d read a _lot_ of books, she knew all of it.

In short, she didn’t need or want friends or lovers and was perfectly fine with it.

And then one day, Theo Nott waltzed into her life.

 

* * *

 

“This looks fascinating,” he said as he sat down on the seat beside her uninvited, casually flipping through the novel on her desk. “Fascinating enough for you to be reading it the whole math class, anyway.”

They hadn’t really spoken to each other before, and Hermione was instantly alert and suspicious about his intentions. She narrowed her eyes at Nott and snatched the book back, snapping, “Are you going to tell on me?” She was intent on being a perfect student in the teacher’s eyes, even if she’d already self-studied that chapter in the math book and understood all the concepts and found it a bit boring to listen to it again.

He rolled his eyes, “Honestly, _relax_ , Granger.  I’m not going to tell on you – just curious about the book.” At her still suspicious glance, he added, “There are things worse than this, you know.”

“If you didn’t come to threaten me—” she began, and he rolled his eyes at the dramatic wording of hers, “— what do you want?”

“Just being friendly,” he smirked. “You don’t have a lot of friends, don’t you, Granger?”

“I don’t need them,” she folded her arms across her chest.

“You don’t need the books either, but they make life more fun,” he said, with a mischievous grin.

“That’s totally irrelevant.”

He ignored that and held out a hand to her, “Want to be friends?  I’ve got a lot of books in my home library that are like the one you’re reading. I think you’ll be interested.”

 

* * *

 

It turned out, books were way too irresistible to her.  After some questionings on the family library he said and his generous invitation to visit his house, and also some very serious warnings from Hermione – ‘you have to promise you won’t fall in love with me’ – because all the previous reasons already mentioned about her distrust for romance, which Theo responded with an eye-roll and dry retort, “You really are confident, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I won’t. I _promise_.”

He was a bit odd – because normally people didn’t want to befriend her – but it was also a nice kind of odd, the way he just walked right into her life with ease and asked to stay there.  And she might find it a bit strange at first she couldn’t deny that it was also refreshingly interesting.

Maybe it wasn’t that bad to have a friend, after all.

 

* * *

 

**One and a Half Years Ago**

They stood at the entrance of Hogwarts High School. Today marked the start of their new life, at this elite school of every middle school student’s dream.

“Ready?” He turned to her, with a smile playing on his lips.

“Always am,” Hermione said easily. “I’ve already looked through most of the first-semester books.”

Theo laughed, “I don’t mean _academically_ , Hermione.  We both know you’re probably going to be top of the class.”

“Just _probably_?” She teased, her eyes widening in mock horror.

He rolled his eyes, “I just _love_ your humbleness, Granger.”

She smirked back at him, “I know.”  After a pause, she asked, trying to sound casual, “Well, I don’t see what I have to worry about outside the academics either.  We’ll still going to be friends, right? You not going to abandon me to find some new friends, are you?”

A year ago Hermione would’ve said she didn’t need any friends in her life, but it was hard not to enjoy friendship when being friends with one Theo Nott.

“We all can have more than one friends, you know,” he raised an eyebrow at her teasingly.

“Of course I know,” she rolled her eyes impatiently, though what she was thinking was that she didn’t need any other friends when she’d already got him. “But we’re _best_ friends, right?”

He smiled, warm and promising, “Best friends forever,” as he held out a hand towards her. “Forever and always, yes?”

“Definitely,” she grinned as she took his hand, and they walked into the school.

 

* * *

 

Despite her previous thoughts of not needing any other friends than him, Hermione did make a few new friends at Hogwarts High.  Of course, none of them feel as _special_ as Theo.

_First there was –_

“Can you believe how _annoying_ Malfoy was today at practice, Mione?” Harry Potter ranted as he plopped down next to her after getting back from football team training every day.

Hermione didn’t really know much about Draco Malfoy except that he was from next class, and also on the school football team with Harry. From what little she could gather, Harry hated him.  He hated him so much that he’d spent roughly an hour after practice each day recounting his list of ‘why Draco Malfoy was a prat’.

_And then there was –_

“What does this chemical equation mean, Hermione?” Pansy Parkinson turned around to face her grabbing her textbook up from her slightly messy desk with nail polish, lipsticks, pencils, and notebooks scribbled with calculation.

The girls had gotten off a rough start. Hermione could see from the start that Pansy was smart and academically competitive but she hadn’t understood why Pansy would put so much effort into her appearances.  So, she’d asked.

“Not everyone looks a natural beauty like yourself,” Pansy had replied coolly. “Ironically, it’s usually the girls who look pretty enough without makeup that claimed that all this was superficial.”

“Are you trying to impress a boy?” Hermione had asked, confused.

“I want to look good for myself, not for of anyone else,” Pansy had snapped before turning away haughtily.

It could’ve only gone uphill since that disastrous start.  And they gradually got used to each other despite their somewhat differing views on many things, but they both sort of respected each other as someone who they could have a reasonable argument with.

_And finally, there was –_

“You look murderous,” Blaise Zabini said loftily, and Hermione jerked her head up at him, turning her attention away from where Theo was just talking to Daphne Greengrass. Blaise put a finger between her eyebrows and rubbed it gently, “Frown a little more and there’ll be a permanent wrinkle here.”

She batted his hand away with a deeper frown, “I _don’t_ look murderous.” She glared at the backs of Daphne and Theo as they continued talking about some video game.

He smirked, “Really?  If looks could kill … but honestly, are you jealous?”

She spluttered at him and his ridiculous idea, “What?  Of course not.  Theo and I are just friends.  I’m not _jealous_. I just think he should focus more on schoolwork than, you know, _video games_.”

“Theo’s grades are good enough,” Blaise countered smoothly. “Not all of us felt the need to stay 3 months ahead of school schedule like you and Pansy.  Live a little, Granger.”

Her gaze flew over to Theo and Daphne again and wondered if it was because there was a part of Theo’s life she felt she wasn’t included in that bugged her.  They were best friends, after all. Best friends shouldn’t be excluded in each other’s interests, right?

“Blaise? Can you teach me that video game they’re talking about?”

His dark eyes widened slightly, his expression turned slightly bitter for the tiniest moment that she didn’t notice, and then he smirked broadly, “Of course.  I _love_ corrupting straight-A students.”

“I’m still going to get straight A’s even if I start playing video games,” she huffed, and he laughed.

 

* * *

 

“Life is fair, after all,” Theo grinned in delight as he through an arm around a scowling Hermione and pulled her up into a whirl of dance in his living room, “if you’re good at video games too, it’s going to be unfair for the rest of us mere mortals.”

“I’m new to this game okay?” She glared at him, “Give me a few more months …”

“Always so competitive,” Theo laughed.

“One of my charming qualities,” Hermione smirked at him as he put her down onto the sofa again.

Blaise looked on quietly, his expression unfathomable.

 

* * *

 

“So Hermione and you … met in middle school?”

“Yeah,” Theo answered, remembering the memory with a grin. “Already addicted to books then, she was.”

“Are you two … an item?”

Theo’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Blaise didn’t usually do direct questions. He liked subtle probing, sarcastic remarks, lacing insults with compliments sort of things. He wondered why Blaise was breaking his long time habit like this …

Truth was, Theo was attracted to Hermione from the start. But she’d made him promised that they were platonic, and he was pretty sure she didn’t want anything romance in her life, so he never pushed it.  He was content enough to just be the best friend.

“Course not,” Theo replied, with a laugh. “We’re just really good friends, that’s all. Why ask?  Are you falling in love with me or something?”

Blaise narrowed his eyes slightly before returning a laugh, “You are really pretty, Theo, but unfortunately, not my type.”

“Awww,” Theo pretended to be wounded, “that _hurts_.”

Neither of them brought up the subject again.

 

* * *

 

**One Year Ago**

“Why would you want to push them to get together?” Pansy asked absentmindedly, flipping through the math notes from the ginger college student her mother had found for her for advanced tutoring.  Her tutor dressed nicely and formally and spoke in a cultured way that made Pansy suspected he came from some posh and wealthy family, but she couldn’t fathom why he’d need to do tutoring to pick up extra pocket money if that were the case.

“They’re clearly in love with each other,” Blaise said, gazing out of the window.

“Yeah, and they’ll realize it eventually without anyone’s help,” she jotted down a few key points from Percy Weasley’s notes. “It’s only a matter of time.”

“If I had to wait until then, I couldn’t promise I wouldn’t do something first,” Blaise admitted, his voice low. “They’re clearly meant for each other and … I don’t want to sabotage that.  I’ll feel better if they kill my hopes entirely now rather than … dragging this out.”

Pansy raised her head, a smug and wicked grin on her face, “Oh, I know.  I just wanted to hear you admit it.”

Blaise scowled.

 

* * *

 

“Are you ever going to tell him how you feel?” Blaise asked one day as they were sitting in the classroom.

“How I feel about him is that we’re best friends, which he already knows,” Hermione snapped, feeling irritated at Blaise constant probing. In truth, she was realizing she was probably a little more … possessive towards Theo than friends might normally be … but then, they were best friends, so that probably wasn’t a big deal.

“Yeah,” he sounded totally unbelieving. “Don’t regret it when he found someone else someday –”

“He could have new friends but he and I are always going to be best friends –” she interrupted.

He ignored her, “I mean, he turned down Daphne for you but that doesn’t mean it’ll be like that every time –”  Hermione knew Blaise was referring to the time that Daphne confessed her feelings to Theo and Theo apologetically telling her that he didn’t reciprocate the feelings.

“I won’t mind if he gets a girlfriend,” Hermione insisted, tasting the lie on her lips. It tasted strangely sour. “He’s my best friend, I’ll be happy for him.” Except she wasn’t sure about that. “I just don’t think he and Daphne had any chemistry like that anyway.”

“Do you want to know _who_ I think have that kind of chemistry with him?” Blaise sneered slightly, barely managing the trace of bitterness threatening to surface.

“No,” Hermione said coldly. Before she could add anything else, Harry entered the classroom, sweating and panting from the football practice, wearing a shirt that Hermione didn’t recognize as his, and leant against Hermione’s table.

“Draco stole my shirt when we changed back after practice,” Harry scowled, but there was a hint of fondness in his voice. “Makes me no choice but to take his.”

Blaise and Hermione exchanged a look of amusement, temporarily forgetting their previous argument.

 

* * *

 

**8 Months Ago**

Theo wasn’t blind, of _course_ he realized the increasing amounts of time Blaise and Hermione were spending together. They seemed to be sharing some secret without him knowing … he felt a bit left out, but he told himself that as long as Hermione was happy he was fine.

As long as she was content, it didn’t matter whether she loved him or Blaise. Her happiness always came first to him.

He already knew he would find some excuse to reject their invitation to see some latest thriller movie together later this week.  He didn’t want to intrude, after all, when there seemed to be sparks flying between the other two.

Theo was so focused on his own thoughts that he didn’t realized he just bumped into someone else.

“Sorry,” he said, startled, as he was jerked back to his surroundings from own thoughts.  The blond girl gave him a soft smile as she picked up her paintbrushes and other stuff from the floor, “it’s alright.”

 

* * *

 

Blaise and Hermione did share some secret together without Theo knowing, which was – Hermione was in love with Theo.

“Fine!” She shouted in frustration one day, finally admitting her feelings to herself, “I’m in love with Theo. Happy now?”

He didn’t tell her that he wasn’t.  Instead, he forced an arrogant smirk onto his face, “Admit it, I know you better than you know yourself.”

 

* * *

 

The blond girl’s name was Luna.

She was different from Hermione – in fact, she was different from anyone else Theo had ever known.  She was like a bright light in the darkness he was feeling, yet the brightness didn’t feel overly sharp like the way you couldn’t stare straight into the sun.

 

* * *

 

Blaise swallowed down his bitterness as he helped Hermione planned out how he would find an excuse to leave early during the ‘movie date’ to give them some alone time.

“You seemed more eager about this than I am,” Hermione commented drily, not noticing Blaise clenching and unclenching his fist beneath the table, “it’s amusing to have a friend caring about my love life so much.”

He didn’t reply.

“Anyway, maybe he’ll realize his feelings soon enough, just like I realized mine. There’s no hurry. I like being friends with him, too.”

 _There’s no hurry, of course, except it’s testing my patience,_ Blaise thought bitterly. But what he said was, “What if he fell for some other girl?”

“Like who?” Hermione scoffed. “Pansy?  They’re not interested in each other.  Daphne? He turned her down anyway. Pad—”

“There are girls outside of our class, too,” Blaise said, drily.

“He’s not familiar with any of them,” she shrugged, “he doesn’t know them, nor do they know him, as well as I do.”

 

* * *

 

**6 Months Ago**

“So what if he seems slightly interest in her?” Hermione folded her arm across her chest, “Maybe he likes her now, but he’ll fall in love with me after realizing I love him too.”

“Or maybe he’s _always_ loved you, but one day he just might decide to give up because you never seem to –”

“Oh, just shut up.”

 

* * *

 

“We haven’t really spend a lot of time with each other lately,” Hermione said, sounding casual. “I’ve missed you.”

“We might’ve been a bit busy with our own stuff lately,” Theo offered her a sincere smile, “but don’t worry, we’ll still be best friends.”

“Best friends forever,” she smiled back.

“Of course,” he held out a hand and she hold onto it, squeezing it tightly. “Best friends forever.”

Hermione decided that she wasn’t worried.  That things didn’t need to be rushed. That even though she was in love with him, they could still just be best friends. It wasn’t as if he was going anywhere. It wasn’t as if he was going to fall in love with someone else first if he hadn’t even fallen in love with her, when they’d enjoyed each other’s company so much.

 

* * *

 

**4 Months Ago**

“What are you drawing today?” Theo asked as he sat down by Luna side on the big grass lawn just by the lake.  He’d escaped after noticing too many exchanging eye glances between Hermione and Blaise.  It was more peaceful here with Luna – a tranquil escape he was beginning to enjoy more and more.

“Butterflies,” she whispered softly as if afraid of scaring the butterfly away.

 

* * *

 

**2 Months Ago**

“How’s matchmaking?” Pansy asked, her eyes scanning the fashion magazine and wondering what she should pick to wear to the upcoming Prom.  There’re still a few months before it the Prom season actually arrived but Pansy liked to be well-prepared.  She’d have to pick something for Hermione too, because if she didn’t Pansy worried her friend would show up in _jeans_ or something.  When Blaise didn’t answer, Pansy raised her head.

“Maybe you should stop meddling with their business since it’s only hurting yourself now.”

 

* * *

 

**1 month ago**

“How much longer do you plan to wait?” Blaise hissed.

“That’s none of your business,” Hermione snapped back as usual.  Couldn’t Blaise understand that now was not a good time for this?  Not when Theo thought he might like the Luna girl. She just needed to wait for him to realize _she_ was the one he truly loved and everyone else was a passing fling and everything would be fine.

 

* * *

 

**2 weeks ago**

“I know you’ve been spending more time with Blaise lately,” Theo said jokingly, but his eyes were cautious as if trying to figure out something. “But I want to talk about something … best friend to best friend, that is.”

Hermione’s heart stilled and wondered if she could guess what he wanted to talk about. “Of course.  Best friend to best friend.” She offered him a smirk and for that moment they seemed to be back to the when they still spent every minute of their time with each other, casual, carefree, fun, and comfortable, rather than the slightly distant and sometimes awkward atmosphere that had been surrounding them a lot lately.

It felt good.  To feel familiar and easy again.  Hermione had a good feeling about this.

“Best friend to best friend,” Theo repeated softly, trying to memorize that was all they’d ever be, and smiled. “So … I need some best friend advice.  I think I really, really like Luna, do you think I should tell her?”  If she expressed anything that told him that they were more than best friends, Theo would forget about this idea.  If she stopped him, he’d confessed that he’d lied to her since the start and he’d actually been attracted to her all along.

Theo at Hermione, anxious of how she was going to respond, and she said, “Of course, I think you should tell her.”

 

* * *

 

“Granger, are you crazy?  Why did you tell him to –”

“Stop hyperventilating, I have a plan, okay?  He just thinks he likes her but he’ll give up when she rejects him and then he could finally realize his feelings for me.  But before he realizes that I don’t want to play my hand too early, so I can’t tell him now –”

“What if she _doesn’t_ reject him?”

“Mutual love doesn’t happen that often,” she scoffed. “Thank you for caring so much about my love life but just stop worrying, Blaise.  I’ve got everything under control.”

 

* * *

 

“Your roommate and his boyfriend sound a lot like a pair of my friends,” Pansy commented to Percy Weasley as they were finishing the tutoring session that day and gossiping. “Football jocks, hating each other at first, and then one day they started making out in the changing room –”

Pansy’s cellphone rang loudly and she gave Percy an apologetic smile as she answered, annoyed, “What do you want, Blaise?  I’m in the middle of exchanging delicious gossip here.”

Percy rolled his eyes at ‘delicious gossip’ and listened as Pansy continued, after a few moments of silence, “Maybe you should use this chance to make her see you rather than going along with your stupid original plan.  Not that I think your chances are high, in all honesty, but it’s, well, higher than zero, isn’t it?”

Percy couldn’t help it, he rolled his eyes in amusement again.

 

* * *

 

“I … need to think about it,” Luna said. “I’ll reply to you tomorrow?”

“Of course,” Theo smiled at her. He could wait.  He’d waited for Hermione for more than 2 years, hadn’t he?  He could wait for Luna for one day.

She smiled at him and he felt his world lit up brightly.

 

* * *

 

**13 Days Ago**

“I made this myself,” Luna smiled at Theo, putting a necklace made of flowers around his neck as she tiptoed upwards to kiss him. “I think this looks pretty on you.”

 

* * *

 

**11 Days Ago**

“That’s awesome,” Hermione said as soon as she recovered from her initial shock. “She seems like a really nice girl, I’d love to meet her some time.”  She was glad she and Theo were talking over the phone and he couldn’t see her face.

When the phone call ended, she dialed another number, her hands shaking. “Blaise? Can you come over to my house?”

 

* * *

 

He let her cry in his arms, before finally asking, trying not to let any bitterness slip into his voice, “Do you know why I keep helping you?”

“Well,” she sniffed, not realizing the underlying meanings of his words, “yeah you’re a good friend for helping me, thank you.”

He realized she never noticed his feelings all along.  Though to be fair, for the longest time she never realized _Theo’s_ feeling either.  Blaise wondered if he should take Pansy’s advice.

“I love him,” she said, helplessly, and Blaise bit his tongue.  Now was definitely _not_ a good time.

“I know,” he said, then, in a quieter tone, in a whisper that was covered by her sobs, “believe me, I’ve always known.”

 

* * *

 

**5 Days Ago**

“I told him,” Blaise said, his voice monotonous.

They were standing at the roof of one of the Hogwarts building that day.  The sun was bright and the sky was blue, as blue as they both felt, for different reasons.

“You told who what?” Hermione asked absentmindedly.

Blaise’s mouth twisted a little as he said, “I told Theo what I’ve been wanting you to tell him a long time ago.”

She spun around to face him. “What?!  That’s – you have no right to tell him.  That’s my feelings and I should be the one to tell him –”

“Well, you obviously _didn’t_ , did you?” he sneered, bitterly.  Pansy told him that this would ruin his chances but he just thought that he’d never had any chance anyway.

“Why?” she asked angrily. “Why would you do this?”

“Perhaps I’ve been hurt by you both so hard that I want to hurt you too,” he shrugged, his voice sardonic.

“When have we ever hurt you?” she replied, indignantly.

“Intentionally?  Never.” He smirked a little, and watched in some strange and cold and bitter satisfaction as her face contorted in confusion as she started grasping what he really meant. “Want to know what I really feel towards you all this time?”

She bit her lips, and said, shakily, “No.  Don’t.  Don’t ever bring this up and I might just forgive you for telling Theo that.”

“So you’re not even letting me say it out loud?”

“ _Don’t_ ,” she warned him again, her voice almost a hiss.

“As you wish,” he finally said, his voice lacking any emotions as he turned away to walk down the stairs, leaving her alone on the roof.  

 

* * *

 

**Now**

Theo had been avoiding Hermione and she’d been trying to get a chance to talk to him, which hadn’t been successful.  Until now.

It was at the same rooftop of the building again.  Theo wasn’t looking at her.  He was glancing at some faraway spot, in the direction of the school lake.

“I’ve always wanted to tell you –” she began.

“If it’s what I’m thinking, please don’t,” he cut across her, very softly.

She stopped. He was right, though. What was the point of her saying out loud again, anyway? Confirming that they’d both been too ignorant as to miss the chance with each other?  Would it change anything?

“Do you love her?” Hermione asked, instead.

“Yeah. I think so,” he said, suddenly smiling a little, a very, very soft and small smile but Hermione noticed it anyway. It sent a pang of pain through her heart.

“That’s … good,” she said.

“Thank you.”

They stayed silent for a moment before Theo cleared his throat, “If there’s nothing else, I should …”

“Are we still friends?” Hermione blurted out. “Best friends?”

He wanted to tell her yes, of course, but he thought that she at least deserved the truth after all this they’d been through. “In time,” he finally offered. “Eventually, I think.”

She nodded, appreciating his honesty. “Okay. So … um …”

He finally tore his gaze away from the spot on the lawn he’d been staring, and looked her in the eyes. “I’ve … got to go now.  Take care of yourself.”

“You too,” she whispered back. “Bye, Theo.”

“Bye,” he gave her one last smile, a smiled mixed with so many emotions that could’ve meant anything, and left.

 _In time. Eventually._ She thought. _One day we will be best friends again._

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: ff-sunset-oasis.tumblr.com


End file.
